Fritz Sager, and Patrick Overeem, eds., The European Public Servant: A Shared Administrative Identity? Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015. 326pp. Hardback £65.00, ISBN: 9781907301742 Paperback £30.00, ISBN: 9781785522338 Fritz Sager, Christian Rosser, Céline Mavrot, and Pascal Y. Hurni. A Transatlantic History of Public Administration. Analyzing the USA, Germany and France. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2018. 224 pp. Hardback £67.50, ISBN: 9781788113748 E‐book €25, eISBN: 9781788113755
Published date | 01 January 2021 |
Author | Anna Malandrino |
Date | 01 January 2021 |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13343 |
166 Public Administration Review • Januar y | Fe brua ry 202 1
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 81, Iss. 1, pp. 166–169. © 2021 by
The American Society for Public
Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.13343.
Fritz Sager, and Patrick Overeem, eds., The European Public
Servant: A Shared Administrative Identity? Colchester: ECPR
Press, 2015. 326 pp. Hardback £65.00, ISBN:
9781907301742 Paperback £30.00, ISBN:9781785522338
Fritz Sager, Christian Rosser, Céline Mavrot, and Pascal Y.
Hurni. A Transatlantic History of Public Administration.
Analyzing the USA, Germany and France. Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2018. 224 pp. Hardback
£67.50, ISBN: 9781788113748 E-book €25,
eISBN:9781788113755
Introduction
The books reviewed here offer an original key to
understand western public administration and
public service culture at both the individual
and the organizational levels. While the first is a
collective work revealing a multifaceted investigation
that employs a variety of research methods, the
second is conceived as a coherent narrative and
draws eminently upon public administration theory.
Together, they significantly advance knowledge in
the field of national bureaucracies in Europe and the
United States, as well as shedding light on some often-
overlooked aspects of such major policy actors.
The perspectives adopted in these works are often
neglected in scholarly studies despite their centrality
to understanding public administration thought
and praxis. The two books include a variety of
analytical levels, ranging from theoretical debates to
administrative practice and perceptions. Moreover,
their introduction of original viewpoints into the
academic debate is not only likely to productively
affect research and theory but also to confer more
awareness on the public servants’ role vis-à-vis political
power and policy making.
The public servant figure is understood here as having
a formal appointment and a duty to serve the public, in
line with prevailing contemporary conceptions (see, for
instance, Kettl2019). This conception is the ultimate
stage of historical debates over whether the adviser
should be primarily accountable to the ruled or the
rulers. This aspect is carefully dealt with, particularly
through Paul’s chapter in The European Public Servant,
and represents one of the main highlights that is
brought to our attention.
In the following lines, I will emphasize the most
noteworthy features of each book while underscoring
the intersections within and between them. Public
Administration, when capitalized, is understood as a
discipline.
Searching for a Minimum Common
Denominator for Public Service National
Traditions within Europe
The European Public Servant answers four main
questions as outlined in Part One by Sager and
Overeem, pivoting on the public servant conception
throughout the history of European thought, the
relationships between European and American ideas
on public servants, the convergence of conceptions,
and the identification of a shared notion of public
servant as a building block for a common European
administrative identity. Raadschelders offers a
synchronic fresco of public servant conceptions
in different administrative cultures, as well as a
diachronic literature review. The picture provided
is as sharp as the methodological guidelines for
future research suggested and the questions posed.
Unsurprisingly, many of the contributions featured in
the book refer to his chapter as a benchmark.
Part Two, which addresses older notions of public
service, starts with Paul’s reflections on the advice
offered to the ruler. The underlying rationale is
Reviewed by: Anna Malandrino
Anna Malandrino is a postdoctoral
scholar at the Department of Political and
Social Sciences of the University of Bologna.
Her research is anchored in the public
policy and administration field and focuses
on evidence-based policy, education
policy, administrative culture, street-level
bureaucracy, transnational cooperation,
and research methodology. She has been a
visiting scholar at the Center for European
Studies of Harvard University and has
worked as a PhD researcher and lecturer in
Public Law, Ethics in Public Administration,
and Public Procurement at the University
of Turin. In 2019, she won the Franco Levi
award for the best PhD dissertation on
administrative reform.
E-mail: malandrino.anna@gmail.com
Book Reviews
Galia Cohen, Editor
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